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Wessex HC2 Crab Cabs Pt II (Fly Wessex - why on earth did I?)


hendie

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I'll agree with that too. Looking great in there.

I'm sure I too saw soundproofing repairs way back.

The cockpit rear bulkhead, would sanding down the

aft edges and a slot where it joins the transdeck work?

 

 

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Just now, Pete in Lincs said:

The cockpit rear bulkhead, would sanding down the

aft edges and a slot where it joins the transdeck work?

 

Pete, I'm not quite sure what I am going to end up doing in there yet.  The soundproofing panel is much lower than the trans deck, so I know I am going to have to build up that area.  My main concern at the moment is the location of that cockpit bulkhead.  Something is not quite right there - if I line it up with the port side, it doesn't sit right with the starboard side, and if I fit it flush with the leading edge of the window opening the rear edge of it will be further back than the leading edge of the trans deck door.

Since I am going to be making new soundproofing for the cockpit, I may end up making a completely new (thinner) bulkhead.  My brain was frazzled this evening so I'll take a closer look tomorrow

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Hmmm.

A real conundrum. 

The soundproofing panel screwed directly into the bottom of the trans deck.

Is one transdeck door longer than the other?

I need to have a look at the walkarounds before I remember how the cockpit rear bulkhead looked. 

How could they get it so wrong?

 

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On 17/10/2017 at 18:18, JosephLalor said:

I was sceptical about this myself as graphite is sp2 hybridised Carbon and not a metal, but then I remembered that the hybridisation leads to a lot of free electrons not used in forming the Carbon atoms into layers.  The result I gather is that graphite is electrically conducting.  Under those circumstances I might be inclined to believe that story.

Re: graphite and corrosion. I was pondering that while catching up. I don’t think the conductivity of graphite would be much of a worry as the substrate is already plenty conductive itself but it is a sod to stick anything to so might just have led to poor adhesion of topcoat and under film corrosion.

 

Pretty much any unplanned deposit that stops good adhesion will do it - I know of instances of corroded areas in nooks and crannies of vessels with odd corrosion where it turned out to have been traces back to having been an improvised urinal* for shipyard workers that they just overcoated resulting in a primer/dry urine/epoxy system that just just corroded underneath

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Wonderful stuff Hendie and a joy to watch.

That view through the door looks like a photo of the real thing to me... but I guess that's the idea!

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On 11/5/2017 at 3:03 AM, CedB said:

looks like a photo of the real thing to me... but I guess that's the idea!

 

something along those lines Ced - at least, I hope so.

So, carrying on with that bulkhead, one of the most noticeable features is the big red electrical box. The box was easy enough, the red was easy enough, but my scrap transfers box was decidedly short of  anything transferry that I could use.  I did cut up a 'Danger High Voltage Aerial' transfer to retrieve the Danger part, even although it was on a yellow background. However, I had nothing even remotely close to being able to add the 200 V AC.  In the end I painted it on there using my finest brush, and my shakiest hand (apparently).  I console myself with the fact that I have seen photo's of this same hand painted warning and it was none too neat either.  Oh, and more little electronic bits added to break up the space.

 

PB050001.jpg

 

The bulkhead was finally glued in place - in the right place I hope but time will tell. Followed by tidying up some of those cables - which were really starting to get in the way.  You can just make out the white cables disappearing into the little oval cut out in the bulkhead (so it was all worth it).  I also removed the masking tape from the inside of the windows while I still remember.  It looks like I may have a little bit of glue bleed on the outside but I'm too scared to take the outer masking tape off just now.

 

PB050003.jpg

 

Now that the bulkhead was finally fixed in position, it was time to attach the little blighter that started this all off - the BEAM!

 

PB050004.jpg

 

I tried to get a better angle but it's not really that noticeable once it's in there is it?  All that work....

(still waiting on the radioactive paint to arrive - I have not forgotten those lamps)

 

PB050005.jpg

 

856d9eea94_and-now-for-something-complet ...

 

... Keeping Pete happy.

 

We're here to please after all.  

 

Remember all that work that went into the floor ?  The prepping, the priming, the painting, the drilling and making and adding all those little tie down rings ?   Well, let's cover the whole lot up with some plywood then shall we?

 

PB060001.jpg

 

We really do this to ourselves don't we?

 

Using some of the basswood sheets obtained for my (on a slight hold) train build, I cut out a section the same shape as the cabin floor (to be refined later). A quick measure shows that we have a thickness of  - yes you can all read - which is probably a bit thick, but we have a plan. We can sand it thinner!  It I keep to scale, the wood should end up approximately 0.3 mm thick - which I don't think I can achieve, but I can certainly attempt to make it look more in scale.

 

PB060002.jpg

 

I forgot to take a photo here but basically I did a brass rubbing with pencil to transfer all the detail of the floor onto a sheet of paper.  Then I used a pin to indent the basswood where all the tie down rings were located.  This was followed by twirling a pencil in the pinhole to leave a nice dark indicator of each position.... still no idea if this is going to work so bear with me....

 

PB060003.jpg

 

Each pin/pencil hole was then pilot drilled.  Thankfully I tried on a piece of scrap first as I found that the larger drill bit forced the wood to split along the grain once it got to a certain depth. So, I ended up pilot drilling, then 'countersinking' with a larger diameter drill bit, then opened each hole up with a round file.  It's still looking a bit messy at this point.

 

PB060004.jpg

 

Once each of the holes had been opened up, a quick sanding to remove the worst of the raggedy edges and a dry fit - believe it or not, but the holes actually line up!  You can just about see the tie down rings through the holes here.  There's still a few holes to be completed, namely around the cabin entrance, but it looks like this is going to work... except it' still a bit thick innit?  I'm not going to bother with the tie down rings along the back edge as they are going to be covered by the ducting along that wall.

 

PB060006.jpg

 

Well, after some sanding it looks a lot better.  (I might open the holes up just a little bit more though.)

 

PB060008.jpg

 

The good thing is that I don't need to sand down the entire sheet to a uniform thickness - the only bit that will be seen is that adjacent to the cabin entrance, so I'll thin that down as much as I can.  I'll still thin the remainder down a bit but not nearly as much as at the door area.  Once the thickness issue is addressed, I can use the razor saw to cut the sheet up into the individual panels... or I may not... generally we bodge taped all the seams, so I may use painted tape (or ???) to represent the bodge tape.

 

The down side to sanding the basswood down to this thickness is that it will have a tendency to warp very easily.  The good news is that I can use E6000 to glue it down - that will really help eliminate any potential to warp.

 

Carry on...

 

 

 

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I'm looking forward to seeing that (amazing) floor dirty

 

Its all getting too bloomin excellent now

 

I suppose you have a stock of small squaddies lined up to trample the floor for you

 

And a dog...

 

 

Magic our Hendie!

 

 

🙌 

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Wow! 👍

All a bit gobsmacking really. 

I thought this was supposed to be a ‘break from difficult projects’ ( or words to that effect ). 😀

What ever happened to bashing together a 1/48 scale Tamiya something-or-other when a breather project is needed? 😬

Lookig good though! 👍

 

 

 

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On 11/4/2017 at 1:59 PM, hendie said:

Then once inside you're not going to see much of it at all - especially as this is going to be covered by wooden cover boards.  (so why do we bother doing this to ourselves?  All this work just to completely cover it up again)

Your interior detail has been most impressive to watch as it appears and enhances the cabin and it had me wondering how to "display" it. Would it be sensible to use one of those little convex mirrors (some people stick them onto the side mirrors of their cars to see more area) and pop it onto the cabin floor?

This wouldn't be fixed in place, but if displayed at a show it could be used to view those "hidden" areas?

On 11/6/2017 at 9:11 PM, Martian Hale said:

Nice work, I use marquetry veneers for similar purposes, they come much thinner than your bass wood.

An even better alternative is aviation plywood. These are available in a range of sizes thinner than 1mm!

It has the benefit of not splitting along the grain like veneers do.

Lovely stuff but be prepared to mortgage the house if you want a substantial quantity of it...:o

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4 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

*(Pretty much grey paint with sand innit)

 

you were lucky - I always got the other end of the time which was mostly sand with a little bit of paint dribbled in it.

 

9 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

I thought this was supposed to be a ‘break from difficult projects’ ( or words to that effect ). 😀

 

what can I say ?   I like to live on the edge.

Though I'm not quite sure of which edge - I seem to be a bit indecisive these days.  The result of which, made me end up making two versions of the floorboards (so far!)  The only difference between them is that one version has two cut-outs for the tie down rings adjacent to the cabin door, and the other version has not.  To be completely honest, I have no idea which version we had in 28 Sqn... one, the other, or maybe even both!.  I've found photo's on line of both versions being fitted... I'll make my mind up later... maybe... or not

 

PB100025.jpg

 

However I did make a concession to moving forward by gluing the cabin floor in position. (I may come to regret this later)

 

PB080009.jpg

 

The main reason for the cabin floor going in was so that I could get the forward bulkhead fitted, though when I did a trial fit I spotted another problem.  Look at the overhand from the cockpit floor intruding into the cabin area.  Sorry, not going to happen - that part is a bit of fantasy... or poor research.

 

PB080010.jpg

 

So the overhang was duly trimmed and the cockpit floor glued to the bulkhead.  A 1-2-3 block is handy for keeping the 90° angle between the parts while the glue dries.

 

PB080014.jpg

 

Now we get into the boring parts.  Yet it's always the boring parts which cause the most problems isn't it?  Why is that?  Troop seats.. Boring.  In the grey we have the kit supplied seat parts.  In the brass we have my home brewed DIY make yer own troop seats kit (or at least part of it).

 

PB080012.jpg

 

But before we proceed any further we need to do a little bit of investigating... carefully place kit part in location... keep eyes open... draw a deep breath... stop cursing!   Well, that's not going to fit is it?  To be fair, Fly ask you to cut down that frame - but it's still not going to be right.  The troop seats go the full length of the cabin wall on the starboard side.

 

PB080013.jpg

 

SO, after a little bit of measuring - at least twice!  Fire up the soldering iron and we end up with this.... messy bunch of brass bits.  (I finally realized my soldering iron wasn't hot enough)

 

PB090015.jpg

 

I used a combination of different diameter brass rods and brass tube to create the frame.  The tube is the front of the seat frame.   Note the Fly seats in the photo.  A novel, if not particularly effective attempt for the seats.  I'll give them some points for innovation there.

 

PB100017.jpg

 

Unfortunately I'll subtract those points for not making the seats the right size.  On the starboard side, there are 5 troop seats.  You can see here that they do not fit within the available space.  :rage:  I guess I'll be making those too then.

 

PB100018.jpg

 

Some quick math (or sums as we used to call it back in primary 1) and we have a solution.  Seat backs 9 mm wide with a 2 mm gap between each seat and a 1 mm gap on each end.  Of course I don't have any actual measurements to go from but based on all the photo's I have available, these ratios look about right.  I also marked out where the upright supports should be located.  All seems pretty straightforward from here.

 

PB100021.jpg

 

So, back to making the seats.  You can see that solder cleans up pretty easily.  The uprights were a bit more problematic.  You can see the kit part above - the angled strut would end up hitting the seat fabric, so I added a couple of degrees to the angle as shown below and it all appears to work out.  Of course, soldering such small parts and keeping everything accurate is nigh on impossible, so I start off with longer lengths and cut back once soldered. 

I used my scribing tool to gouge out two grooves in the styrene at 30° apart, blue tac the brass in the grooves and hit it with some solder and were done.  I just have to cut the upright support to the correct length - and square.  So I drew a line, aligned the seat frame with it, and the support to that - the pencil line shows me where I need to cut the angled support to keep everything square.

 

PB100022.jpg

 

like so....

 

PB100023.jpg

 

Now just one little thing to check - it had been gnawing at me  - if Fly had got the size of the seats wrong... what else had they got wrong?  I marked out the seat frame with two pencil marks - this is where the upright supports should go - the needles are pointing right where the vertical support goes.  :rage: Yup, they don't line up with the tie downs, which also happen to be the location where the vertical stanchions are located!

 

PB100024.jpg

 

So I am left with two options: 1) throw the kit in the bin and go back to my train. 2) Make a complete new floor with tie downs etc. in the right place (I have no dimensions!).  Okay then three options. Option 3) Fit the stanchions where they will align with the tie downs and live with the fact that the cut outs in the seat will be in the wrong place. 

 

So I quit for the night !  :wall:  and will come back to this later although option 3 is looking favorite at the moment.

 

 

booger!

 

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17 hours ago, hendie said:

Okay then three options.

Option 4:

You confess that this was really a test build for the 1/72 one you are secretly working on.

 

I'd go for option 3 as well. With everything closed up you don't see much down that side anyway although a different story for the port side.

I'm glad you're doing all the sums for us :smile:

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20 hours ago, hendie said:

To be fair, Fly ask you to cut down that frame

Now that's just shabby.

 

20 hours ago, hendie said:

Sorry, not going to happen - that part is a bit of fantasy... or poor research.

SDC10516.jpg

What the cockpit floor/cabin interface should look like! As Hendie says, no odd bit of cockpit floor sticking out.

Under that green soundproofing is the driveshaft from the engine coupling gearbox up to the main rotor gearbox.

There's also a bit of kit (the name of which escapes me) that decouples the drive when the rotor brake is on.

 

And here's one showing the starboard seat stanchion

SDC10518.jpg

Pretty close to the tie down!

 

At one point in the past I was going to buy this kit.

I'm glad Hendie beat me to it!

 

Hopefully the above pictures show to the uninitiated, what Hendie is talking about.

Hendie, I hope you don't mind me posting them here from the walkaround section.

It's helped to refresh my memory too though!

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3 for me too, no brainer really

 

You can fiddle the uprights to a close to reasonable spot

 

This surely is normal for Hendieisation, we are accustomed to the same any time you delve into the personality of a kit

 

If/when/because there is a wrong 'un in any/every model

 

You might not believe me but the way you hammer them into shape is where WE get our enjoyment

 

😱

Edited by perdu
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2 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Hendie, I hope you don't mind me posting them here from the walkaround section.

 

Not at all Pete - great photo's and show off what I'm nattering on about.

 

Today's work - a non event really involved making that floor mounted thingy with the curved top just in front of the bulkhead and visible in your 1st photo.  I also glued the front bulkhead in position.

I have to be honest and say that the kit is really starting to annoy me.  Devoid of location features is one thing but you'd at least expect the pieces to fit.  Unfortunately they, in most cases, do not. For example, the width at the rear of the floor section is narrower then the rear bulkhead which it fits to. The front of the floor section is wider than the bottom edge of the front bulkhead. I did a dry fit today and I have a huge gap all the way up the starboard side with the front bulkhead. Oh - and once I fit the cockpit floor in, the front of the fuselage won't close - but that could well be down to me in that instance

 

2 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Pretty close to the tie down!

 

If memory serves (no guarantees given whatsoever!) the tie down ring flipped out and gave access to a boss in the recess which the seat stanchion locked on to.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, hendie said:

If memory serves (no guarantees given whatsoever!) the tie down ring flipped out and gave access to a boss in the recess which the seat stanchion locked on to.

That jogs a couple of dormant brain cells with me too. A spring loaded collar on the bottom of the stanchion? usually very stiff to operate?

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